Vivian Torres, “FBI”

Artwork by Vivian Torres

FBI

Vivian Torres

I came home after quitting my job to an empty and lonely house. I felt so hollow and incomplete after the accident. She was really gone and today’s case really reminded me of it. I felt helpless and like I had no power. I couldn’t save a life even if I tried, so I’m done trying. It has been six months since I quit my job at the BAU in Quantico, and I fell into a deep hole of depression, and my nanotech was not helping. I thought it was supposed to put me back together when I was broken, but I was going to put on a face of happiness for my best friend, who has been there for me through thick and thin. He was my rock, so I couldn’t let him know too soon what had happened. It’s his first day back, and James doesn’t need to worry about me. At this very moment James, my best friend, is thinking, It is finally time to see her . . . I missed her so much. But, to be honest, I might end our friendship because I don’t want to hurt her in the process, but for now, I need to put on a face and not let it slip that I am the infamous blood collector. “I’m at the gate, see you soon.” I was picking James up at the airport. This moment was the thing I am going to be most excited about this year. When I saw him, all my worries and sadness went away. His cologne is so strong that I caught a whiff of it while being twenty feet apart, but it’s still so subtle up close, and I remembered why I fell in love with him. Then I got a call from the FBI. I picked up and was greeted with a hearty, “Hello.” “Hi, who is this?” I replied. “This is Leah Riley. I am calling on behalf of Agent Reid. He wanted to call to put a meeting in place, so what time works best for you?” Why are they trying to reach out? I got out for a reason. I don’t want to go back, I thought with tears threatening to fall down

my cheeks as I heard in the back of my head everything that happened replaying. I barely control my tears and manage to say, “Why does he want to meet with me? He knows I don’t even want to breathe the air in that place.” I get a sour taste in my mouth. As I was talking to Leah about the meeting, James was thinking, I wonder who she’s talking to. “Ray, are you done?” I heard as I hung up the call. “Yeah, I’m done. Let’s go.” It’s two in the morning, and I can’t sleep for the life of me. I can’t stop thinking about my meeting tomorrow. I wake up at nine in the morning and get ready to leave the house. I’m scared. I get to the front of the building and all the memories started coming back. I remember that time it was her fifth birthday, and my team threw her a surprise party; she was so happy, but now she’s not here anymore. As tears start to pool in my eyes, and I was about to turn around and leave, I saw my brother Reid. “Are you okay?” he asked. He is the one person I could be honest with. “No, I am not.” He hugged me. I was shocked. He doesn’t hug anyone, but I guess he missed her enough to hug me. When we walk inside the smell wakes something up inside me, and my nano is working hard. I feel a little better. The meeting was to talk about me helping them catch the serial killer, who was named the infamous blood collector, the one who took my baby, and if I find who did it, I can finally be free of guilt, so of course, I was going to help. At this moment James was getting into action. “Who am I going to kill today? I missed this.” He starts to pick his victim and hack into their nano. He plays around with them but ultimately ends up making the person pick up a pair of scissors and gouge their eyes out while being silent and smiling in the mirror as they slowly start to lose their vision, they cut their wrist with a knife and then throw themselves down a flight of stairs to their death.

“That was thrilling,” he says with a smile on his face as he presses save, so he can always relive this moment. “Ray, time to go over to the crime scene,” says Reid. As I examine the dead body in front of me I get flashbacks of my first-ever crime scene where the killer had first started killing. I’d been on his case from the beginning. He is a psycho, and I will catch him. At the lab, we examined the nano. I don’t know why we didn’t think of this before. We find out how the nanotech works, and it turns out that this person’s backup DNA data was erased from the tech. When we tested it, it couldn’t isolate, characterize, and manipulate genes anymore. We also saw this in the past victim’s nano with the same problem, and the IP addresses were the same. I am so tired. I get home. It’s three in the morning. I decide to tell James about my thing. We have no secrets from each other, and I need someone here for me. I wake up to a text from Raylie saying she’s working with the FBI and how close she is to catching the killer. “WTF!” I yell at the top of my lungs. How did this happen?

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